WIREDGOV

Substantial investment planned for next five years

A total of £2.75 billion is set to be invested in NHS equipment and buildings over the next five years, figures published recently show.

Of that investment, £1.3 billion is planned for major NHS capital projects, and the rest will go into NHS assets, including equipment to provide high quality care for patients.

The Annual State of NHS Scotland Assets and Facilities Report for 2014 details the investment by the Scottish Government and NHS boards in major projects and programmes, with a further £245 million planned for new primary & community care projects.

Projects to be funded include the new Dumfries & Galloway Hospital, the development of Edinburgh’s new Royal Hospital for Sick Children & Department of Clinical Neurosciences, the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Women’s Hospital and Cancer Centre and NHS Highland’s Hospitals Replacement Programme.

It forms part of a wider programme of work to upgrade NHS Scotland’s assets and facilities to meet the healthcare needs of patients now and in the future.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said that investment in the infrastructure of the NHS was vital to provide the sustainable, high-quality healthcare outlined in the Scottish Government’s 2020 Vision.

Ms Robison said: “This Government is committed to improving the quality of the NHS estate and this is why, with health boards, we have a clear plan in place to deliver the investment our health facilities need.

“This year Scotland’s biggest ever hospital project, the new £842 million South Glasgow Hospital campus, will open to the public and work has also started on NHS Lothian’s new Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

“These are major projects which will transform the way healthcare is delivered in Scotland, while also ensuring we provide the facilities and the capacity needed in our NHS for the future.

“Investment in infrastructure will also help us make best use of the NHS’s finite resources – reducing the cost of maintaining older and less suitable buildings.

“I’m pleased to see from this report that the amount of backlog maintenance has reduced substantially over the last three years and the planned investment programmes will help to reduce this even further.

“However it is still the case that our NHS is stuck with the legacy of historic PFI projects – and as this report shows PFI facilities management costs this year have increased by 16 per cent. This type of funding model, which means the NHS is financing excessive profits in the private sector, has now been abolished by this Government.

“The new NPD and hub models we have introduced mean that private sector returns are capped and surpluses can be directed in favour of the public sector.”

NHS Scotland owns physical assets worth around £5.4 billion. The majority of the NHS Scotland estate is owned, although PPP and PFI account for 12 per cent of the NHS estate.

Health boards report that 59 per cent of their estate is in good physical condition with 37 per cent requiring investment to improve its condition and 4 per cent being unsatisfactory and requiring major investment or replacement.

A total of £797 million of base backlog maintenance has been identified in this report – a reduction of £213 million since 2011. The majority of the backlog is in either buildings planned to be disposed of in the next 10 years or in non-clinical parts of the estate.

In addition, at least £275 million of the backlog identified is already being targeted through planned refurbishment programmes and estate rationalisation.

Notes To Editors

The Annual State of NHS Scotland Assets and Facilities Report for 2014 is the fourth annual report published by Scottish Government on asset and facilities management in NHS Scotland.

It is developed by the Scottish Government with support from NHS boards and Health Facilities Scotland (HFS).